"The blog has made Glab into a hip town crier, commenting on everything from local politics and cultural happenings to national and international events, all rendered in a colorful, intelligent, working-class vernacular that owes some of its style to Glab’s Chicago-hometown heroes Studs Terkel and Mike Royko." — David Brent Johnson in Bloom Magazine

Hot Air

Big Man On Campus

So, Indiana University big boss Michael McRobbie copped himself a cool million bucks-plus in pay last year. Not only that, he got a luxury car and nearly $50k to cover his housing expenses. Oh, and the U. cut him a check to cover the taxes on some of his pay.

Millionaire McRobbie

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McRobbie, acc’d’g to the H-T, ranked sixth among public university presidents in the nation in terms of pay. It’s a one-off deal, though. When McRobbie inked his deal with IU in 2007, he was promised a sugary bonus if he stayed here for five years. He pocketed more the $300,000 last year in exchange for his undying loyalty.

Still, $6-700,000 in slave wages for a year ought to soothe some of the sting of a second potentially harsh winter in a row here in So Cen In.

Is IU getting its money’s worth?

The graduation rate for baccalaureate students entering the U. in 2007 (the last cohort group measured, using a six-year window) was 58.2 percent. That includes students at all seven IU campuses. The grad. rate for Bloomington campus scholars was a more gaudy 77 percent.

Problem is, the U. says students hoping to grow their brains here in the 2014-15 school year should expect to shell out $24,418 if they’re Indiana residents and $47,270 if they’re not. If the U. has any business sense (and, believe me, it does, it does) it’ll hope that scads more kids from New Jersey, Long Island, and Pennsylvania sign up for classes this coming fall semester.

Image From The Rich Kids Of Instagram

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The re-positioning of IU as a destination school for the spawn of East Coast swells has profoundly changed our town. Walnut Street and College Avenue are becoming soulless mini-canyons of condominium developments. And the City Council has angered the populace by installing parking meters downtown in large part to try to control where the students living in those new buildings park their SUVs.

And B-towners who dreamed that the Square would be quaint collection of locally-owned shops and boutiques have been awakened from their reveries by the sprouting of wine and sports bars and the closing of a number of long-time merchants downtown.

The Indiana University board of trustees may be thrilled to pieces with the performance of Michael McR. since he come aboard seven years ago but townies may not be so full of glee.

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Copeland Cops Out

Miserable old cur Robert Copeland, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire’s police commissioner, was under pressure from all sides to take a powder after he described the Leader of the Free World using the slur at a local diner a couple of weeks ago.

For his part, Copeland feels he’s well within the bounds of decency and logic to use such terminology. He has written, “I believe I did use the ‘N’ word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse [sic].” “For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.”

Copeland Takes The Heat (Image/Concord Monitor)

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Far Right Wingers as well as crypto- and unapologetic racists are howling about the First Amendment, natch. Emetic-in-human-form Rush Limbaugh, for instance, likens Copeland to basketball analyst Charles Barkley who, in February and again earlier this month, made some insulting remarks about the collective girth of San Antonio women. Barkley, Limbaugh points out, similarly refuses to apologize.

As if that makes Copeland’s verbal retch acceptable.

The difference? Barkley is a former pro athlete and an idiot. Copeland is civic leader, a law officer with the power to detain, arrest, and interrogate.

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Wrist-Slapping

The banksters who run Crédit Suisse have been caught red-handed setting up schemes for American plutocrats to hide their money in order to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Presumably, Dougan gathered ’round with the rest of his fellow scam artists to celebrate the fact that none of them — repeat, none — will be indicted on criminal charges. And, again, no one will go to jail for bilking the American public and enriching the oligarchy of this holy land.

We’ll Stash Your Dough

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Crédit Suisse, like the Wall Street firms that caused the global financial meltdown of 2007-08, swims in money. The paying of a fine, no matter how eye-popping it appears to the rest of us, is scant penalty for its acts of immorality and outright felony.

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One thought on “Hot Air”

The American public is receiving a “destination school” education on how a Banana Republic operates. The single crop is CASH and the loop is functionally closed. This can’t end well. Worse, it will not end with anything resembling the wet dreams of Red State “Patriots” or well-heeled swells.

Darwin will out. Survival of the fittest doesn’t refer to wealth. The upside, as it were, is that prisons won’t be needed.